Posted on 07/27/2011 5:00:00 AM PDT by Homer_J_Simpson
Winston S. Churchill, The Grand Alliance
The News of the Week in Review
Twenty News Questions – 13
Japan Takes a Fateful Step in Eastern Asia – 15-16
The First Five Weeks of the Nazi Drive Against Russia (map) – 17
Congressmen are Grave Amid Intensified Crisis (by Turner Catledge) – 18
Gasoline Rationing Impends (by Luther Huston) – 21
Auto Men Worried Over 1942 (by Frank B. Woodford) – 22
Answers to Twenty News Questions – 23
http://www.onwar.com/chrono/1941/jul41/f27jul41.htm
Germans encircle Soviets at Smolensk
Sunday, July 27, 1941 www.onwar.com
On the Eastern Front... The Soviet forces around Smolensk are cut off by the German pincer movement. The German 39th Panzer Corps (of Panzer Group 3) links up with 47th Panzer Corps (of Panzer Group 2) east of Smolensk and surround large portions of the Soviet 16th, 19th and 20th Armies. Meanwhile, in the north the Baltic port of Kallinn is attacked by the Germans.
In the Mediterranean... Force H and empty transports from Malta arrive in Gibraltar without further loss.
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/27.htm
July 27th, 1941
UNITED KINGDOM: After ten weeks of peace, German bombers attack London tonight.
GERMANY: Keitel orders all copies of the directive of May 13, concerning courts-martial destroyed.
GIBRALTAR: The ships that escorted Convoy Substance to Malta arrive safely back in Gibraltar.
BALTIC STATES: Vilna: The Germans murder two members of the Judenrat [Jewish council] when the community fails to pay an enormous bribe.
U.S.S.R.: Soviet forces in and around Smolensk are cut off by the German pincer movement.
German radio announces that the Wehrmacht has advanced to within 45 miles of Leningrad and that they have reached the neighbourhood of Volosovo.
ICELAND: The first section of the US Army 5th Infantry Division arrives. (Dave Hornford)
U.S.A.: The ground echelon of the USAAF’s 33d Pursuit Squadron (Interceptor) sails for Iceland in the transport American Legion. The ship is part of Task Force 16 consisting of the battleship USS Mississippi (BB-41), the heavy cruisers USS Quincy (CA-39) and USS Wichita (CA-45), five destroyers, the miscellaneous auxiliary USS Semmes (AG-24), the store ship USS Mizar (AF-12), and the cargo ship USS Almaack (AK-27). Within a few days, TF 16 is joined by the aircraft carrier USS Wasp (CV-7), carrying the air echelon of the 33d Pursuit Squadron, the heavy cruisers USS Vincennes (CA-44), and the destroyers USS Walke (DD-416) and USS O’Brien (DD-415). (Jack McKillop)
Washington: Japanese diplomats deliver a protest to the U.S. State Department regarding the shipment of U.S. supplies to Vladivostok, USSR, through Japanese waters. (Jack McKillop)
COMMONWEALTH OF THE PHILIPPINES: Douglas MacArthur is promoted to Lieutenant General today after having been recalled to active duty yesterday as a Major General. MacArthur had never previously held this rank, though his father had been one of the few Lieutenant Generals in the US Army from the Civil War until World War II. MacArthur would hold this rank until he was promoted to full General following the Japanese assault on the US and its possessions in December, 1941. MacArthur was subsequently promoted, over his protest, to temporary General of the Army and then to permanent General of the Army, the rank he held at his death in 1964. (Marc Small)
FRENCH INDOCHINA: Saigon: Japan will station troops within striking distance of Thailand when she lands at least 24,000 men in southern Indo-China. 8,000 troops will be garrisoned at Pnom-Penh, 4,000 will be garrisoned at the naval base of Cam Ranh Bay, the north-east of Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City).
JAPAN: Tokyo: Masatsune Ogura, Japan’s Finance Minister, declares that the urgent thing for Japan to do is to “forge ahead towards establishment of the Greater East Asia Co-propserity sphere.”
CHINA: Chungking: There is bitter criticism of Roosevelt’s policy of supplying American oil to Japan.
As someone who wasn’t there, after reading for the past several weeks I have to wonder if the war with Japan was really a shock to people? I understand the attack on PH WAS a surprise, but was the general idea of war with Japan that out of the realm of belief?
It just seems like every day I read one thing after another that made it inevitable.
Or am I just projecting my understanding of the outcome?
Just curious. I would like to hear others opinions on this?
I've always assumed that the NY Times, then as now, was usually just a mouthpiece for the Democrat president, FDR.
So, we note the attitudes expressed by the two cartoons here referencing Japan -- by today's standards utterly politically incorrect, but expressing widely shared feelings of the time.
Note the Japanese are portrayed as inferior people, and in naval power, to the point of extreme mockery.
From the cartoonists perspective the Japanese would be easy to defeat, and ridiculous to challenge us.
Of course, you never can tell what they might do...
15. Can you pair the following American Army slang terms - armored cows, bubble dancing, Chicago atomizer, sugar report, galvanized gelding with their definitions:
a) dishwashing
b) a letter from a girl
c) tank
d) canned milk
e) automatic rifle
Are these really in general use as slang terms or just in the imagination of the guy who writes the twenty questions?
If you thought those cartoons were politically incorrect, they had nothing on the Dr. Seuss cartoons that were being published in the leftist rag, PM, at that time.
Where did they get that picture of MacArthur? It looks like it was taken just before he gassed the Bonus Army.
Worse yet, they used eeny, meeny, miney, moe.................
Interesting history of that here:
David Zincavage asserts that the origin is Scottish and posits that the first line of the verse is a corruption of Inimicus animo, a Latin phrase that translates as “enemy of the soul.” The second line uses “nigger” and this goes to early depictions of the devil as black, as opposed to the modern red; we still have references to darkness as being evil. If you catch the devil by the toe, it won’t cause his cloven hoof any pain. If, instead, you’ve pinched a human’s toe instead, he’ll yelp, and since you have made a mistake in identifying him, you should release him.[
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eeny,_meeny,_miny,_moe
To put in today's context, we all knew the housing crises was coming, we could see it. What we didn't know was how and win. It came later than I thought is should and I didn't think the govt would get that involved to screw it up.
We can all see the debt crises coming now, we know things can't continue. Again, what we don't know is the when and how.
You should read some of the headlines from Honolulu newspapers leading up to the attack. Many of them make is seem like war is definite.
Jay Allen Reports German in France Fear U.S. Action
..................”They are fearfully preoccupied over what America is going to do.” He said. “When I was released on Sunday to be taken to Paris the officers of the court-martial were convinced that the consular train was the last train out and the relations had been broken. They were very depressed.”
“”It's good to have seen the Nazis close up all these months because I know how worried they are, how pathetically unsure they are. They know well that everything depends now on us and the are haunted by apprehension.”
Relates to the cartoon, Don't monkey with the buzz saw.
I had grandparents in both theaters, one was a private with the 5307th Composite Regiment in Burma (better known as "Merrill's Marauders") and the other was a nose gunner in a B-24 in the 8th Air Force flying out of Italy. Guess that's why I have always been very interested in both theaters of war. It has only been recently through my studies that I've begun adding the Eastern Front to my areas of interest. Going to school during the Cold War, they didn't teach us much about that aspect of the war.
When I was a kid the only real conclusion I could come to about the USSR was that they must make lousy nukes. Otherwise why would our teaches have us use a wooden school desk to protect us from the impulse, heat, and radiation of a nuclear device.
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